different perspectives, advance what they think is in the best interest of the people they've been elected to represent. and then negotiate from that standpoint to find common ground. if you got individual legislators driven by their own sense of personal security based on whether they'll be able to pay their bills on time, they may abandon some of the perspectives they should otherwise be use to go drive them to get things done. >> gretchen: fair point. let's see what the american people think right now. here is a fox news poll. the vast majority say government spending out of control. look at that. 83%. there is another poll that says this, that they should raise the debt limit again in congress, only after major cuts happen first. 69%. so obviously, congressman, we're gotting not just republicans agreeing with that, but a significant portion of democrats to get up to 69%. what do you say about that? >> i think there is two points here. one, as it relates to the debt ceiling, it's not a forward-looking vehicle that authorizes the president or the congress to spend additional money. it's